A true feminist (1962 to 2016)
“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people just exist”.
– Oscar Wilde
Dr. Trupti Shah, a feminist and environmentalist lived her life to the fullest. A leading human rights and environmental activist, founder of Sahiyar, a women’s rights organisation in Vadodara, Gujarat, dedicated to feminism and secular humanism, passed away on 26 May 2016 after a valiant battle against lung cancer at the young age of 54. Her untimely death has caused an irreparable loss to a wide range of social movements working towards social justice, distributive justice and gender justice.
Dr. Shah was full of life, hope, spirit, and was a great champion in mass mobilisation on gender concerns such as declining sex ratio, violence against women and girls, rights of women in the informal sector, sexual harassment at the workplace; environmental and livelihood concerns of poverty groups and farmers; democratic rights of dalits, tribals and religious minorities. Her Ph.D. in Economics from MS University in Vadodara was also on “Economic Status of Women in Urban Informal Sector – A study of Baroda City” in 2000. She made valuable contribution towards participatory action-research on themes such as dynamics of the women’s movement in India, violence against women, women’s work, women in the informal sector, household strategies of women in poverty groups, the impact of fundamentalism and communal violence on women, and the impact of globalisation.
In 1993, when faced with devastating communal riots in India after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, Trupti was at the forefront of peace keeping, peace-making and peace building efforts. She and her husband, Rohit Prajapati, had chosen to live not in caste-based residential societies of Vadodara, but in Tandalja in the outskirts of Vadodara, known as ‘mini Pakistan’, as it was predominantly populated by working class Muslims. Rohit as a trade union and environmental activist, and Trupti as a women’s rights activist played a pivotal role in the formation of the Vadodara branch of PUCL (People’s Union of Civil Liberties). During the Gujarat riots in 2002, Trupti and Rohit provided protection to the minorities and contributed towards the documentation of human rights violation, and deaths and destruction of property of innocent citizens during the riots.
Dr. Trupti Shah took up causes of people affected by the Statue of Unity project, the Garudeshwar farmers’ plight, and the last petition filed by her was Vishwamitri Riverfront Development Project (VRDP). The last 18 months were extremely painful for Trupti as she suffered due to cancer, but that did not deter her from her spirited engagement. She was eagerly awaiting the court order for her petition demanding stoppage of VRDP, and the moment she was informed that the stay order for the VRDP had been obtained, she responded, “We have become serious about environmental and human rights issues, but what about women’s rights?” and she went into a coma, and in a couple of hours, her body gave way.
Dr. Shah, in her four-volume Pictorial History of Women’s Movement (both in Hindi and Gujarati), has adopted a story telling method in which 8 to 10 women raise issues, provide explanation and analysis, and discuss approaches to women’s issues, taking episodes from history, epics, folklores, scriptures and oral traditions. The book provides a gender lens for 19th century social reform movement, the first half of 20th century freedom movement of India, and the contemporary women’s movement.
Dr. Trupti Shah has made a permanent place in the hearts and minds of thousands of men and women, boys and girls across class, caste, religious, ethnic lines, whose lives she touched. In an anthology profiling feminists from western India by Dr. Neera Desai (2006), she stated, “For me, the feminist perspective is not an ideology, but a way of life.” Indeed Trupti, yours was truly a feminist way of life, both in the private and the public domains.